Packers-Buccaneers was a gross testament to the state of the NFC (and great for the Eagles)

The old kings are fading. The Philadelphia Eagles have a tremendous opportunity to seize their crowns.

The Green Bay Packers outlasted the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in one of the biggest showdowns in Week 3. It was a game neither side should be super excited about.

Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers engaged in a rock fight, with a last-second delay of game serving as the final boulder that squashed Tampa’s comeback hopes. This stat sheet will note this game was a 14-12 road win for a road underdog. It only scratches the surface of how ugly things got — and how pretty the Philadelphia Eagles, whose game ended before this one kicked off, would up looking as a result.

What looked like it could be a Packer romp quickly devolved into Green Bay’s worst offensive fears. Aaron Rodgers threw touchdown passes on his first two drives to take a 14-3 lead. In the process, he made rookie Romeo Doubs look like a proper Davante Adams replacement, if only briefly.

Green Bay threatened to put this game away its following drive before Aaron Jones fumbled inside the Tampa Bay two-yard line. That marked the end of of the Packers’ scoring threat. They had nine drives after this point; only two gained more than eight net yards.

Without a steady wide receiving corps, Rodgers was reduced to a litany of short passes the Buccaneers sniffed out with ease. Doubs handled some heavy lifting early, but mostly looked like a fourth-round pick after the first quarter. Allen Lazard remained a valuable route runner and downfield blocker but not a fear-inducing downfield threat.

14 of Rodgers’ 17 second-half throws traveled fewer than 10 yards beyond the line of scrimmage, including 13 straight to start the half. Part of this was a quarterback protecting a lead, but a much bigger part was his wideouts’ inability to create separation downfield. This created a scenario where Aaron Rodgers was regularly throwing short of the sticks on the third down, Mitch Trubisky-style.

via RBSDM.com

Gross! But it resulted in a winning effort because Tom Brady was even less effective. His lack of receiving depth — Chris Godwin and Julio Jones were out due to injury and Mike Evans missed the game thanks to a suspension for lighting up Marshon Lattimore for … some reason — made him the Dollar Tree version of Rodgers’ frustrated QB.

It took him 58 minutes to crack the Packers’ defense for a 55-plus yard drive, though costly fumbles from Breshad Perriman and Russell Gage didn’t help. He was better than Rodgers in the mid-range but only completed one pass that traveled more than 15 yards downfield, even with Green Bay’s top cornerback Jaire Alexander sidelined early due to a groin injury.

The end result is a battle between two Hall of Fame quarterbacks where they both averaged fewer than six air yards per pass. Jared Goff, for reference, finished last among starting passers with a 6.4 air yards/attempt number in 2021.

via rbsdm.com

Was this a testament to each team’s passing defense? A treatise on the value of impact wideouts and how dangerous each team could be if Green Bay added a receiver before the trade deadline and Tampa Bay got all theirs back in the lineup? Or is it a signal that neither of these aging QBs can create magic without a proper supporting cast?

Either way, it’s great news for the Philadelphia Eagles, who are now a New York Giants Monday Night Football loss away from being the last undefeated team in the NFC. Philly went out and beat the brakes off the Washington Commanders in Week 3. DeVonta Smith played like he was sick of hearing people gush about AJ Brown’s role in the offense, lifting Jalen Hurts to a 340-yard, three touchdown, zero-turnover performance.

After an underwhelming passing performance in Week 1, Hurts now has 673 passing yards, four touchdowns and one interception in his last two games. Not coincidentally, the Eagles have won those games by a combined score of 48-15. Philadelphia has combined the rock fight defense of the Packers-Bucs tilt in Week 3 with an offense that can hit the gas seemingly at will.

It’s too early to crown an NFC favorite with any real authority, but the conference remains wide open despite a host of 2-1 holdovers from the years of contenders’ past. The NFC’s biggest showdown in Week 3 turned out to be a boring, ugly game where two legendary quarterbacks did late-stage Drew Brees cosplay for quarters at a time.

That leaves the conference wide open for someone new to step into the void. After three weeks, the top candidate is the Eagles.

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